Empowering People Through Fashion

Empowering People Through Fashion

Alden Wicker, talks to us about founding EcoCult, how things have changed over the last 10 years and why we should think about where our clothes comes from.

Transcript below:

In the past ten years we’ve gone from a place where nobody had any idea that fashion was toxic, destructive, polluting, exploitative of humans and animals. And we’ve gotten to a place where people are extremely aware that the way we’re making fashion right now, we can’t keep making it the way we are. We are ingesting and breathing in some of these pollutants whether you’re in India or Bangladesh or you’re here in the United States.

I started writing a little bit about it and then in 2013 I quit my job to found EcoCult and also write freelance articles about fashion. Since then I’ve been able to write about it for a lot of different publications who are realizing how important fashion is to this global quest to address pollution and address our climate crisis.

A year and a half ago my husband and I decided that we needed to get out of the New York City bubble, where I was only getting one side of the story and I wanted to actually visit these places that I’ve written so much about and talk to these people who were on the other side of the supply chain and really learn their perspective.

There’s a lot that we can learn from the people who are in these places, it’s not just people who are making our clothes at the beginning of the supply chain but people who are designing the clothes and are excited to break into the American market. And also teach Americans about how empowered they can be not just from the perspective of ‘oh it’s a garment worker’ but also like it’s a person who owns a brand and who has a creative vision.